Cramming Essay Subjects / MPT Practice - Advice? Forum

[amk110]

Hello all:

I've grossly underestimated the amount of time necessary to adequately prepare for the essay and performance test portion of my state's bar exam (each being 25% of the grade respectively). I've always been pretty bad at law school multiple choice questions, so I ended up focusing entirely too much time on MBE practice.

At this point, I've only done about 1200 MBE practice questions, and I've had people tell me that 600 is plenty, and that 2400 is the minimum you should shoot for. I left off at 61% overall of those MBE questions correct. I'm not sure if this is a respectable place to finish or not.

Moreover, I'm working with the BARBRI 2013 materials. These MBE questions are split into two books (a book of single subject question sets, and a book of mixed subject question sets). I found the single subject questions to be extremely long, confusing, convoluted, etc. My average score on these was 55% overall. When I moved on to the mixed subject questions (which I've heard are "real" bar exam questions) my average on those was 69% overall. Taken together, I get the 61% average, but I'm not sure if I should be giving more weight to the "real" questions.

I've been trying to cram the essay subjects by outlining the material and then reading sample essays. The student passing answers on some of them are pretty terrible. I definitely feel like I could write a passing essay on any of the MBE subjects at this point, and on a couple of the most commonly tested non-MBE subjects. But mostly, I've just been hoping I can rely on the essay writing skills I picked up in law school, and the fact that in my state, typically half the essays are going to be MBE topics, and there's been a civ pro essay on pretty much every exam for the last 20 years, so I've beefed up on that topic pretty hard.

Any advice on how best to use the remaining two days?

I've got a substantial stack of flash cards. I wrote out one for each MBE question I got wrong. I'd really like to spend some time going over these (and my outlines for both MBE and non-MBE subjects again) because I haven't had a chance to revisit any topic, and I feel like I'm forgetting some stuff.

Is it worth doing any more MBE questions at this point?

I probably won't have time to sit down to do a full MPT, but do plan on going through the BARBRI MPT workbook. That's going to have to suffice for the MPT portion of the exam.

I don't know enough about how the grading/scaling works, but I'm hoping 60% of the MBE correct and some mediocre essays/MPTs will be enough to carry me through.


Thanks for taking the time to read my anxious ramblings. Like many of you, I've already lost my mind.

[Law-So-Hard]

hey there,

Don't panic. Here's what I'd do: Take a look at the essays that are most likely to be tested. Barbri supplied this to you in the essay book in the front, there's an essay frequency chart. Focus most of your time on those. Take a look at some sample essays to see how they're organized.

I've really neglected PTs but looking at score breakdowns I realize PTs can be hugely beneficial.... would recommend outlining a couple (I need to do the same )

[jr8966]

Stay calm. Yes the exam is bat s$#t crazy, but you can do this! Keep your spirits up.

Next, create a plan of attack. You might want to clump together related essay subjects. I don't know what your state tests, but for example partnerships/agency/corporations are related subjects with similar concepts. Create a plan and stick to it. Make sure that you go through each essay subject and have a basic idea of the terminology and the flow of the subject. Remember you just need to know the overall aspects of the subject, not the details. Figure out each subject's terminology so that you can make up rule statements in the event of an emergency. To help speed up the process, just outline bullet points to practice questions and read the model answers.

With 2 days you should be able to figure out the basic points of emphasis for each subject. Yes you might get tripped up with certain elements and minutia, but with a little repetition you can probably come up with the most important tests for each subject as well.

Most importantly don't go down without a fight. Keep your head up and just plug along for the next couple of days.

[amk110]

Thanks for the input all.

I'm just going to keep reviewing the most commonly tested subjects. There are some really infrequently tested subjects (that have just been tested recently) that I'm probably going to blow off entirely (admin law, federal income tax, secured transactions) and use the time to do a practice MPT, since that's 25% of the grade, and I don't really know what to expect.

I tried reviewing these subjects, but I'm just overloaded and fried at this point, and there's too much material in the Conviser. I've tried teaching myself from the short outlines of other people, but I often find that I can't get much out of someone else's work product. (I learn the material best by outlining it myself).

Best of luck to all!

[chicubs88]

I would suggest spending 30 minutes max on MPT "prep." I don't know what your state's MPT is like, but I'm assuming its like mine and requires no outside knowledge. For the MPT you need to follow directions, use the law they give, and apply the facts given. Every MPT practice test I looked at was relatively straight forward. Just make sure you allocate time appropriately and don't freak out.

[amk110]

Like everything else I've heard about the bar, I've been advised to do anywhere from 12 practice MPTs to absolutely nothing because it's a "gimme."

I've had very little practical writing experience, and while I'm good at following directions, I'm not so good at "not freaking out" when trying to construct a document I've never seen before, using ExamSoft (which absolutely blows for formatting) and then there's the whole license to practice law riding on the outcome.

I think I'll do one full length timed, 90 minute MPT so I have some idea of what to expect. Maybe look over some of the student passing answers in the BARBRI book.

My state's got two of these MPTs, at 12.5% of the grade each.

[At the Drive-In]

I've heard that the main problem on MPT's is not being able to finish. Well, I can crank out about 100 words per minute on a laptop. I am attacking the MPT sheer quantity over quality.

[amk110]

All that stressing, and I thought the essays were *really* easy. Like, really. 1 or 2 issues on each. 4/6 were MBE subjects, and none of the subjects I didn't study showed up. So I really feel like I did well, or.. minimally competent... on the essays.

I'm worried though, I can't recall spouting out a lot of issue statements rule statements, or conclusions. I kinda just used the questions about the fact pattern as headers (aren't those the issues anyway pretty much?) then ran right into applying the facts to the appropriate rules. My rules are there, and my conclusions are correct, but I certainly wasn't doing the IRAC method (it just doesn't work on bar essays, IMO. If the question is only testing the issue of admissibility of pieces of evidence, do you really need to say "The issue is the admissibility of.... "

And the MPTs seemed extremely easy. Mine were short (6,000 characters of 10,000), but I was expecting to have to draft jury instructions, or a will, or a contract or something I'd never seen. All I had to do was write a letter and a memo. Had no issues with time, and the amount of the material in the files seemed WAY less plentiful than the BARBRI examples. (My stuff just had a letter or two, a case or two, and maybe a statute. Some of the BARBRI crap I stressed out about had infinitely more material in the library...)

Of course, all this leads me to worry. A lot. Because I have a track record of doing poorly on things I think I did well on. But I definitely felt minimally competent to practice law the entire time.

[LAWYER2]

I guess the crappy part is just not knowing exactly how to feel. In law school, when you felt good about an exam, there was a good chance you rocked it. I've been hearing such conflicting stories about the bar. Some say if you felt it was easy, you likely didn't pass, others say if you feel good, there is a good chance you did well.

I wholeheartedly agree with your assessment. As I went through the essay's, I was like, YES, YES, YES, YES, Do-able, and Okay. I didn't feel as strong about the MPT's however I was glad not to get jury instructions or a will like you said. The MBE's weren't harder or easier than Barbri or Kaplan. Over-all I feel good, but just scared of jinxing myself. Glad you feel the same!